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The Fresh Network is the one-stop shop for all things related to raw food and holistic health. Raw food is the most natural, alive and nutrient-rich food there is and until you give your body and mind the fuel they need to thrive, there is no telling how joyful, gorgeous, confident, clever, sexy, energetic, charismatic and all-round fabulous you could be. So come on in and let us help you find out...

August 08, 2006

The New Get Fresh!

Sarah here with the latest magazine-related news. Rather later than promised – my sincere apologies for that. For those of you who don’t already know (and I think the cat is pretty much out of the bag now) Get Fresh! has undergone yet another re-design – only this time, it is the image overhaul to end them all! And that’s what has been keeping me so busy...

Over the last 14 years or so, the magazine has surprised readers with a variety of new looks, each one an improvement on the last. But now, thanks to the very talented and lovely people at eatsleepthink, it finally has a design that is so perfect it is hard to see how it could be improved upon. Guests at the last Fresh Network dinner party in London on July 29th got a sneak preview, and we can’t wait to unveil it to the rest of you! As I write this, it is all done and dusted and about to leave the eatsleepthink studio and hit the presses.

Back when I last posted here I promised that I would reveal some of the highlights you can look forward to in this issue, and that is what I want to do today. For example, I told you how excited I was about an interview I’d done, but kept you guessing about who I was talking about. I can now reveal that the expert in question is Natalia Rose. Many of you will be familiar with Natalia’s work, but for those of you who are not she is a Manhattan-based nutritionist and author of the truly brilliant book The Raw Food Detox Diet. I’m a huge fan of Natalia’s work and I know you will be too when you read what she had to say.

Our very talented correspondent Rhoda-Mary Bowell, meanwhile, did an interview with cancer survivor Bernadette Bohan, author of The Choice and the newly released The Choice: The Programme. Six years ago, when Bernadette was diagnosed with cancer for the second time, she started to ask questions – questions her doctors could not answer. Unwilling to accept this, she set off on a mission of discovery, and as she found answers, informal gatherings around her kitchen table soon became packed seminars, and then culminated in the four-step plan that Bernadette outlines in her new book. You can read about that plan in our review of the book, and about Bernadette’s story in Rhoda-Mary’s article.

Every part of this issue is excellent – we won’t publish anything that isn’t – and I wish I could give a mention to every one of our contributors and tell you a bit about what they’ve written. However, time does not permit me to do that so I will confine myself to introducing the four new columns we’ve launched, and revealing the one other thing I promised, back in May, that I would disclose prior to publication...

First, the new columns… We’re privileged to have had Dr Brian Clement of The Hippocrates Health Institute as a contributor for several years, but from now on the title of his column – Healing At Hippocrates – will have a more literal interpretation. In each issue he will tackle a specific health challenge: explaining the root causes of it and outlining his recommendations for eradicating it – together with true success stories of patients he and his staff have personally helped at the Institute. This time, infertility is the topic. As Brian points out in the article, not so long ago families had trouble limiting themselves to 10 children. Now, in stark contrast, a third of the couples in the US who want to have children are unable to. All the mainstream medical establishment has to offer is a series of unnatural and invasive procedures which do nothing to address to the true cause of the problem, and as such have woefully unimpressive success rates. Fortunately, there is a better solution, and the gallery of baby pictures at Hippocrates – little ones who were conceived against all odds after their parents followed the programme – is testament to this fact.

The second new regular feature I want to tell you about is A Day In The Life. I’m so excited about this one! This will feature a different raw expert in each issue, and will be an intimate peek into their life: what time they get up, the hours they work, do they exercise, do they meditate, what they eat and drink, what they do during their spare time…basically as much as the personality in question is willing to reveal to us! Featured this time is the vibrantly inspirational speaker, author and health consultant Alissa Cohen – and right now I am in discussion with some equally exciting people about future slots...

For the third new regular feature we welcome Russell James to our pages. Many of you will already know Russell as The Fresh Network’s resident chef – and some of you will know that sadly, we are saying goodbye to him soon as he has been invited to go to New York to work with Matthew Kenney (co-founder of Pure Food & Wine restaurant, co-author of Raw Food, Real World, and now director of the company Organic Umbrella) on his new book. However, Russell assures me that he will still find time in his busy schedule to continue his new column in Get Fresh! You’ll find his début in this issue – a four-page special on raw picnics: delicious food just made to be shared with friends and enjoyed in the sun.

Lastly, I have started a new column entitled Raw Detox. In each issue I will look at a different aspect of this huge subject, including how to, when to, safety precautions, and tips and techniques for enhancing results. For this issue I have written about an ancient naturopathic remedy that soothes and supports the liver when it needs help processing toxins (and is bliss-inducing and relaxing to boot): the castor oil pack.

Now! I told you back in May that I had surveyed a number of experts on an important nutrition topic. That topic is none other than fat. At last year’s Fresh Festival one theme kept coming up again and again: that the average person on a raw diet is overdosing on fat – ‘overdosing’ being rather a big understatement. Although the speakers present butted horns on a variety of issues, there was complete consensus among them that the average person on a raw or high raw diet is eating between three and six times too much fat.

Raw fats are so much better than cooked fats in all their carcinogenic trans-nastiness that it can be tempting to fall into the trap (and we’ve all been there) of thinking we can consume as much as we want. Initially you may feel great eating this way, but as you detox and your system adjusts to a lighter diet, you will find that you need to adjust your fat intake if you want to feel your best. The upcoming article will tell you why, it will help you decide how much fat is right for you, and it will explain how to make sure you are getting the right kinds.

This is the first of a three-part series that will go on to look at protein and carbohydrates (in the autumn and winter issues respectively). Macronutrient myths well and truly busted, we’ll move onto other topics that tend to cause confusion. If there’s one you’d like us to cover, don’t stay silent – contact me and I’ll see what I can do… I’m now in the process of interviewing experts for the protein article, even as the questions for the carbohydrates one take shape in my mind. Never a dull moment…!

If you have any questions you’d like answered on either of these topics, email me now. If it’s a basic one (“How do I get enough protein on a raw diet?”, “Do I need meat?” etc etc), chances are it’s already on the list. If it’s not on the list and it’s a good question, I’ll add it and you will read the answer in the pages of Get Fresh! very soon...